Cameras with Point Target?

Development Cinematics & Media
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So, today’s question is the availability or the ability to have a camera lock onto a target. The purpose I’m trying to get at is being able to use this “Target Camera” to animate camera movements and to tell the camera where to look by keying the target. This makes it so that the Target controls the pitch and yaw and the Camera controls the translation/location. I am basically trying to replicate the function of Maya’s “Camera and Aim”. Keep in mind that I am aiming to have this camera go through matinee sequences. I do know that Unreal 4 has almost unlimited possibilities (I’ve been using Unreal 4 since it’s official release) and I’m very sure that this can happen.

The one idea I’ve come up with, based on what I’ve learned thus far, is making the target set as a character and parented or locked to a trigger volume. The trigger volume would force the camera to constantly look at the target, despite it’s location in 3D space. This would mean that the target would be tangible and keyable.

I’m a Character Animator and I’m very familiar with Autodesk Maya & Autodesk Motionbuilder. I deal with a LOT of pre-visualization and motion capture. I will admit that I am spoiled when it comes to the features of those programs, so I’m crossing my fingers in hopes that this can happen and that someone might already know the answer.

[Edit Below]

SOLVED: Start Matinee, create a Camera Group. Click on the Movement Track and look at the Details tab. Under Interp Track Move, is “Look at Group” and “Rot Mode”. You must do these:

1.) Look at Group: You must name the group IN YOUR MATINEE that contains the actor you want the camera to follow (This means you must make an empty group for your choice of actor and add a movement track, this way, you can key your target).

2.) Rot Mode: This is usually set as “IMR Keyframed” as default. Set this as “IMR Look at Group” to enable the Look at Group function.

For all of you visual learners, here’s a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/URPr7QI.png

From here, you can key your target and your camera, separately. This pretty much replicated the Camera and Aim function from Autodesk Maya. Enjoy!

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Have you tried using Look at Group in Matinee? Select a key and you’ll see Look At Group Name in Details panel. You can create some sort of null object in the level positioned at wherever you want to look and put it in a separate group in Matinee and show it as the look at group.

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No, actually. I’m trying to look for that online and in Matinee. Would you mind giving a screenshot or a hint to where that’s at?

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WAIT!.. I found it! I assume you just link it to what you want the camera to look at and it will follow it via pitch and yaw?

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Yeah, that’s the idea. I’ve never needed to use it but it should work fine. Post a screenshot of your matinee setup if you cant get it working and i’ll take a look.

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It works, so well! Just save this post, I’ll be posting a screenshot for everyone to see.

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God this is the most backwards way to do things… Can we not just have camera operate like in Maya or max with a base and a target?

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Not sure if this is what your looking for (and seems like this is a very old post), But:

  • Add empty pawn to the scene
  • On the right side in details (below the world outliner) click Add component, select Spring arm
  • Then Add component again, Camera

You may need to rotate the camera node first but it locks onto the initial pawn node point.
So you can rotate, move around a single point.

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